On a recent trip to the grocery store I found 10lb
packages of chicken quarters (these are the leg/thigh pieces) on sale for an
exceptionally good price. I bought 3 packages of them. I put two in the freezer
and cooked up the remaining package into meal starters. A meal starter is simply
something that has been prepared ahead of time to make your cooking time go
smoother and more quickly.

This month I thought I would share some basic info and recipes on how and what
to do with a bulk amount of chicken.

There are a couple of different ways you can cook the chicken. I have put all
the chicken into a roasting pan with chopped up veggies, covered it with a lid
or foil and then let this cook for several hours at about 325 degrees.

The easiest way and my most common method is to simply boil it. Doing it this
way means you will end up with some yummy chicken broth.

To boil the chicken you will need to put the chicken into a large pot or even
two smaller pots if you donít have one big enough to hold all the chicken. Cover
this with water and about 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the
heat, cover the pot with a lid and let this simmer for several hours; until the
meat is falling off the bone. If you want more flavorful broth you can add a
chopped up onion, chopped up carrot and even some garlic to the broth.

When the chicken has finished cooking you can use a slotted spoon and fork to
fish out the meat. I then strain the broth through a colander into another bowl
to make sure I get all the meat and bone pieces as well as catching any of the
veggies I may have added. Those veggies are added for flavor and can be tossed
at this point.

Let the chicken meat cool. As soon as it is cool enough to handle begin removing
the meat from the bones. You will now have a large bowl full of chicken meat
pieces. I then cut the chicken meat into small pieces.

Now the meat can be frozen for meat starters. I freeze about 2 cups of chopped
chicken each in quart size freezer bags. Label the bag with the contents, the
date and how much chicken is in the bag. This will help later on when you need
it.

For the chicken broth, I put this in the refrigerator overnight so the fat can
congeal on the top. The next day I remove the fat and divide the broth into
freezer bags. I put about 2 cups in each bag. This can be used in recipes
calling for 1 can of chicken broth.